Sunday, March 2, 2014

This invigorating melodrama from Jacques Audiard—the director of the compelling, multilayered prison drama A Prophet (2009)—centers on the explosive chemistry between two damaged souls. The beefy, penniless Ali and his five-year-old son have traveled south to Antibes, where they settle with Ali’s sister in the hopes of starting a new life. Ali’s part-time job as a club bouncer leads to his meeting Stéphanie, a whale trainer who becomes a double amputee after a freak accident at the marine mammal park where she works. Unfazed by Stéphanie’s disability (rendered with astonishing CGI effects), the often brutish Ali shows his gallantry by carrying her in and out of the Mediterranean on his broad back. For her part, Stéphanie takes a keen interest in Ali’s amateur ultimate-fighting bouts, eventually becoming his manager. As Ali and Stéphanie evolve from friends to casual sex partners to deeply connected soul mates—despite (or because of) their many differences and the obstacles they face—Rust and Bone becomes nothing less than a great love story, recalling the sublime melodramas of the 1950s directed by Douglas Sirk.